1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for modifying a surface of biodegradable porous polymer scaffold for tissue engineering using a low temperature plasma discharge apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A biodegradable polymer such as polylactic acid (PLA), polyglycolic acid (PGA) or poly(lactic acid-glycolic acid) copolymer (PLGA) used as a material of scaffold for tissue engineering has been applied in various medical fields such as bone plates of screw, plate or pin shape, surgical sutures or a matrix for drug delivery, due to the characteristics such as superior degradability and mechanical property in vivo, easiness in controlling degrading rate, and easiness in forming pores.
However, the above materials are all hydrophobic, and therefore, cell compatibility and tissue compatibility are low when a tissue cell is cultured in a porous polymer scaffold, or when the polymer scaffold in which the cell is cultured is transplanted into a body. In order to solve the above problems, researches into modifying the surface of the polymer scaffold have been proceeded in various ways.
There are methods for improving the hydrophilicity and tissue compatibility such as a method of treating with an aqueous acid solution (G. Khang, S. J. Lee, J. H. Jeon, J. H. Lee and H. B. Lee, Polymer (Korea), 24, 6, 869, 2000), a method of treating with an aqueous alkali solution such as sodium hydroxide (J. Gao, L. Niklason and R. Langer), and a method of fabricating a scaffold in a hybrid form of collagen which is one of extracellular matrix components and PLA or PLGA.
However, in the conventional methods, when the aqueous acid or alkali solution is used, the scaffold itself is degraded by the aqueous acid or alkali solution to lower the mechanical properties of the scaffold, and when the collagen is used, problems of immune reaction may be caused by the use of the one of different species.